April 2015

Please help celebrate and honor the life of our dear base camp medic Eve Girawong, who mean so much to all of us and who dedicated her life to helping others, by generously making donations in her name to International Medical Corps Nepal Disaster Relief Fund.

Currently the team is on the way down the Khumbu valley and heading home. As we walk down the valley we have seen many homes that have been damaged by the earthquake. Some have lost walls, others have been totally leveled. The local people are now working to repair the damage done to their villages. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of them.

Joe, Louis, Haley, Randall, and Ankur took a helicopter to Lukla and are awaiting a flight to Kathmandu. In Namche for the next two nights we have Garrett, Conan, Billy, Fred, Yuki, Koei, Alan, Rosier, and Davi.

Karl, Andrea, and Vibeke stayed behind in Gorak Shep to look for additional items around base camp, and will likely meet the others tomorrow in Namche. Michael and Ron are in Kathmandu at the Yak & Yeti hotel.

All members listed are doing fine. Thank you for all your well wishes.

We would like to encourage you to donate in memory of Eve to the Nepal Disaster Relief Fund. As our base camp Medic, Marisa Eve Girawong, dedicated her life to helping others.

This is Garrett Madison calling in from Gorak Shep. Today the team was able to descend from Camp 2 on Mount Everest down to Camp 1. We had a good break in the weather and then from Camp 1 we were able to be evacuated by helicopter down to Base Camp. We got down to Base Camp and were able to sort through what was left of our camp after the wind blast from the landslide triggered by the earthquake here in Nepal. It was a very sobering couple of hours sorting through the rubble of what was left of our camp. Now we are on our way down the valley. All team members are doing well. Michael and Ron are in Kathmandu at the moment. The rest of the members are here at Gorak Shep in the Khumbu valley and we are working our way down slowly towards Lukla and Kathmandu.

We are still just incredibly devastated by the loss of our Base Camp doctor, Marisa Eve Girawong. She supported us throughout the expedition, took good care of us and insured that we were healthy throughout. We are just totally devastated that we lost her in Base Camp due to wind blast from the landslide.

We received a call from Garrett that the climbing team has quickly and safely descended from Camp 2 to Camp 1 and is now awaiting a helicopter evacuation to base camp. The weather is currently very good at base camp and there are a number of climbers from several teams awaiting a flight down. If everything goes to schedule, we expect the team to be safely in base camp sometime today in Nepal (Monday).

Hi, this is Garrett Madison calling in from Camp 2 on Mount Everest here with the guiding team. It’s been a rough 24 hours for us. Yesterday as many of you know there was an earthquake in Nepal and it shook up the Western Cwm pretty badly while we were climbing. We managed to make it to Camp 2. And at that point we got on the radio to base camp and learned that our base camp had been devastated and that one of our members, our beloved doctor Eve Girawong was in critical condition. Over the next few hours we learned that she had passed away and it was very hard on all of us.

We have been up here at Camp 2 hanging tough but we are running low on food and fuel and we have to get down. There’s no path or route through the Khumbu icefall at this point in time. The teams that have tried to make their way through the icefall today were unsuccessful and will not be attempting again in the future. So at this point our only option to get down is by helicopter evacuation.

Our plan is to descend tomorrow to Camp 1 and hopefully with good weather fly to base camp to reconnect with the other members of our expedition who survived the avalanche at Everest base camp.

Again our hearts go out to the family of Eve Girawong. She is loved by all of us in base camp and a great addition to our team and helped us tremendously. She will be missed greatly. We are very sorry for her loss.

Morning in Nepal. Garrett Madison and our climbing team reported in that all are well and safe at Camp 2. They are working with the other teams to assess this current situation and plan for options to decend to base camp. No ETA at this time but they are fine at Camp 2.

It is with deep sorrow and profound grief that we can confirm the loss of our Everest/Lhotse base camp doctor, Marisa Eve Girawong. Eve perished in the aftermath of the avalanche that struck the base camp area following the devastating Nepal earthquake earlier today.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Eve and her family and friends.

We will have more information later after daybreak in Nepal and additional updates from our team. Thank you for your combined prayers and well wishes.